Oxford diner debate ends in harmony

Sunday

Sep 1, 2013 at 6:00 AMSep 2, 2013 at 8:27 PM

This story had an improbably happy ending. Two former antagonists —the Air Force veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder and the Oxford diner owner who booted him and his service dog out of his establishment — apologized to one another and hugged before a crowd of some 300 at a rally this morning.

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

OXFORD — This story had an improbably happy ending.

Two former antagonists —the Air Force veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder and the Oxford diner owner who booted him and his service dog out of his establishment — apologized to one another and hugged before a crowd of some 300 at a rally this morning.

The gathering at the Greenbrier Recreation Area on Route 12 had originally been billed as a protest boycott of Russell Ireland's "Big I" restaurant after his run-in with veteran James Glaser went viral on the Internet.

But it morphed earlier this week into a PTSD awareness event, and, as it turned out, a moment of unexpected reconciliation.

For his part, Mr. Ireland, who initially had been skeptical of Jack's service dog status, asked the veterans for, and for the most part received, forgiveness..

"I came here specifically to apologize to all of you," he said, "I was uneducated about PTSD. I didn't realizes the effect it had on all of your lives. I stand before you and I just ask for your forgiveness. Please forgive me."

The crowd roared its assent.

"You're forgiven," many of those on hand said in unison, though one dissenter exclaimed, "No you're not."

And Mr. Glaser, a former master sergeant who says he sustained PTSD after two tours in Iraq, came full circle. From initially calling for a boycott, he now urged his fellow veterans to go back to Big I's, a few hundred feet down Route 12 toward downtown from the park.

"This is not a boycott no more. I want you to patron(ize) his establishment," Mr. Glaser said. "We both had some education."

There was plenty of education to be had at the rally, which featured a host of service dogs with bright harnesses, and in many shapes and sizes, circulating with their masters. A large number of those on hand arrived by motorcycle.

A series of veterans, many of them who saw combat, talked passionately about what they described as a plague of suicides among veterans.

They urged other veterans to seek help, which increasingly comes in the form of service dogs trained to calm and provide companionship.

Michael Damon, a veteran from Uxbridge who does outreach work with other veterans, stood on the park hillside with his black Labrador, Maxine, which was trained by the National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS) program based in Princeton. He said 22 percent of the country's suicides from 2001 to 2009 were committed by veterans.

"We care that we're losing our warriors at epidemic rates, faster than on the battlefield," Mr. Damon said. "It's unacceptable. But what are we going to do about it? Education. It's your job to leave here and tell people what's going on.

"I don't care if it's a chimpanzee. I have a dog. It works for me."

Joe Janeiro of Fall River, one of the event's main organizers, put a positive stamp on the proceedings.

"Five days ago people screamed protest," said Mr. Janeiro. "Five days ago there was a lot of hate. Five days ago people were blind. I hope after all this we will teach."

After it was over, Mr. Glaser, who soon will return home to Nevada with his wife, said he would willingly return to Big I's if he had the opportunity.;

He said he was amazed at the transformation of his relationship with Mr. Ireland, the diner owner.

"I'm speechless at the sincerity and honesty. We're not putting on a fašade," he said.

As the crowd dispersed and the Harley-Davidsons, many of them adorned by American flags, roared off, the parking lot at Big I's was filling up.

Contact Shaun Sutner at ssutner@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ssutner.